Shenanigan Showdown round 2

I've tried growing the C4matic strain by fast buds 4 times before this. Each of the previous 4 seeds did great in early veg but then quickly floundered and became sickly, weak and just plain ole scraggly. I believe this is because of many things such as poor feeding/watering practices, possible transplant shock or dislike of too big of pots, and it may be that fast buds are just so fast that i couldn't keep up and have little time for damage control. I've decided to give the strain 1 more attempt and hopefully correct a few things and pray for success. Firstly, I'm only going to grow them in their initial small cups and then into 1 gallon smart pots. Second, attempt a better feeding schedule including more calmag; I had already been PHing the water so that's good. I germinated the 5th and 6th seed using the paper towel method, and they both germinated very quickly, only needing roughly 1 day of moisture before being ready to plant in soil. After planting they took about 32 hours to pop from the soil.... Now that's freaking fast! In the 7 days they managed to gain 2 sets of true leaves on top of their cotyledons. The plants will get to grow a couple weeks before a coin toss will determine who is The Queen and who is The Lady round 2. Happy growing all.✌️

We're doing good here in week 2, the plants are growing and mostly green and healthy. I started seeing a few spots on leaves and am sure it's from water droplets building up and then exposure to light. Unfortunately my tap water has a fair bit of chlorine and although I try to let it evaporate out it still seems best to limit any misting or only do it at lights out. Plant A had taken a small lead on height and size of leaves, but they are both developing roots at a nice pace and should be ready for transplant this next week. Because of my recent several failures with this C4 strain I've decided to keep things small and only give them 1 gallon smart pots. I'm hopeful that this will let them build roots quickly in a soil that won't stay wet too long. I've seen people grow incredible plants just in a solo cup, so if i can't manage a 1 gallon pot i think I'll just give up. ✌️

Damn! The coins been flipped! It's tails. The Queen wins the bigger plant fair and square. Both plants transplanted nicely. Neither had any algae buildup as i made cup covers out of a pair of my favorite black Sparkle socks lol. Neither were root bound but had a nice spread of roots along the sides. A couple days after transplant they got some odd leaf cupping but eventually it subsided. I'm guessing the combination of the lowered humidity, fairly high heat in the 80s and then the shock of transplant or excess water in the soil may have pissed them off. Cheers to another plant battle and some hopeful success with the c4 strain. "Good luck Queen" 😈

Funny week. At the beginning of the week they're both standing straight...and by the end Sparkle Bottom just decided to bend over and start growing sideways. Whatever, that's cool i guess. The Queen has had surgery, the Queen decided that a "top" was a good idea...only bad thing is i had just cut my nails that day and my sheers didn't wanna get in there so well. So the top may be successful or a bit wonky, we'll see. But all in all, happy, healthy and growing. 👍

Dang! Pistils already!? Ugh that was fast. The plants are green and healthy which is great. The Queen looks nicely filled in for only being about a foot tall. Pistils are popping in all over the place. The "top" wasn't a complete success...it definitely split from being apically dominant, but certainly not perfect; one branch is much longer than the other. Note to self: do not cut fingernails before trying to top a plant as my nails work much better than my sheers. Lady Sparkle Bottom really needs to straighten out...I'm not sure why she went and curved like that. The Queen said she's stretching for the light, but i had them equidistant from the lights! What the heck?! I'm sure the Queen knows best.....or their trying to sabotage me and Lady Sparkle Bottom! 😉 Anywho...they're being moved into the tent with LEDs and hopefully the change from fluorescent light will boost their growth, they maybe should've gotten in there a week earlier but i was a little short on space. Happy flowering ✌️

What a wild week for growth! The plants went from somewhat tight compacted branches, to long and tall as heck in just a week! After that big boost of growth I went through and cut away bottom branches. Unfortunately there aren't a lot of leaves other than giant fan leaves and tiny sugar leaves so I'm a bit afraid to remove many leaves...just branches right now. Lady Sparkle Bottom has shown her beautiful purple traits recently and I love it! The poor Queen will just have to be boring and green. Lol watch he'll be the winner anyways regardless of any pretty purple/red colors. Go team Sparkle Bottom!

A week full of cutting away low branches and deciding what's worth keeping, what isn't getting enough light, and what parts of the plant are going to drain power from the rest. The plants really stretched out and the branches got very large spaces between nodes. It's been difficult to cut away as much as i have.... very sad...but hopefully it'll help.

Another good week of flowering down. The purple in Lady Sparkle Bottom is just beautiful! The queen has such a healthy look and some nicely developing green buds. It's hard to tell which one I'm more happy with. I don't quite understand why lady is having those curling purple sugar leaves, but they're very dark purple and fairly stiff but very smelly.👍 I figure the girls have just a few more weeks and over all I'm happy with the grow so far. They stayed pretty healthy, they're taller than any other C4 I've grown and they haven't gotten all discolored and generally awful like my previous 4 C4s.😁 Happy Growing Everyone! GO TEAM SPARKLE BOTTOM!

Another incredible week for The Queen. This second diary of cannabis competition has been intense! Lady got the purple trait which I thought would make her a shoe in for the win....but The Queen is just Gorgeous in every way! Yes she's green, but her health is incredible, leaves gorgeous, and wow her buds are really looking full and rounded. Whereas Lady has a beautiful color, but looks scraggly and odd and far less healthy/prim/perfect like the queen. I expect Lady Sparkle Bottom will be the first to finish because her pistils are discoloring and The Queen has some very plump young pistils. I started making my own mix of a "bud finisher" which consists of molasses, Humic Acid plus, and some kelp. After reading that seems like a good combination. Also humic acids are good for helping plants deal with drought and other stresses which are common for me being a red zone grower. Using 1 gallon pots have been a continuous battle with drying too quickly. Kelp extract is also helpful with handling plant stresses. It'll be an interesting finish either way...but I'm changing my vote on this one... Go Team Queen!

Another exciting week of flowering. I'm about to lose my sh*t over how big and bulky The Queen has gotten! I want that plant to start changing colors so i can get some good photos. I squeeze the main few buds and they're pretty solid which is an amazing achievement for me with the Fast Buds collection, I've had continual bad luck growing them, but it's amazing what great plants they can be when you work out your growing process and quit screwing things up. Lady Sparkle Bottom isn't as big and thick as The Queen but she makes up for it with very deep reds and purples. I checked out her trichromes last night with the magnifier and she's a bit hard to call...her tops still look clear/milky but her stalks have an interesting reddish tint...perhaps some of the tops will turn red also. I've been giving The Queen small doses of bloom nutrients still, but for the most part they got the molasses, Humic acid and kelp water this last week. From now I'm just going to feed The Queen as that plant still clearly has a while to mature. I'm a bit baffled as to why she's so far behind Lady, but happy nonetheless as she's the most dense and bigger of the two. Perhaps since she was the only "topped" plant it was a successful move and worked on this grow. It'll be interesting to see the difference in weight between them...as well as time. Happy Growing. GO TEAM GUEEN !

Wow could these plants be any different!? I wouldn't guess they were the same strain, i love it! Crazy contrasting colors. Lady Sparkle Bottom should be done here in the next day or so. Her trichromes are looking beautiful and round...a little unusual with using the trichromes as an identifier though since some of hers are red. I'm not sure if on a red/purple variety plant it's common to see colored trichromes instead of the amber colored ones, but that's what this plant is showing. I've been only giving her plain water lately with an occasional bud booster mix with molasses or agave, kelp and humic acids. The Queen is coming along beautifully , the pistils have finally started to curl and discolor which is a great thing since it means it's at least trying to finish. I've had a couple long blooming autos lately the C4 The Queen is one of them. There's a fair bit of sparkle showing up too, but probably not much definable shape to the trichromes yet. I'm excited to see the next couple weeks though as this plant has some seriously solid, dense buds. I'm letting this plant still get waterings with low dose bloom and then my booster mix with the Sugar/Humic/kelp water. Will remove bloom here soon. Happy Growing everyone. GO TEAM QUEEN!

It's been a great week for both plants. Lady Sparkle Bottom C4 was definitely ready to be cut down. She had such gorgeous color and was smelly and sticky. Her trichromes were in the right milky zone, but also had many with the red tint to them. Her final weight wasn't too high but I expected that. Nonetheless she was a gorgeous plant and fun to grow. The Queen continues to grow and fatten everyday and pack on more trichromes. Her pistils have mostly changed colors but still had enough white ones to make me hesitate on when to cut down. She got a few more waterings with bloom nutrients before I started feeding her solely my bud finishing mix of Humic acid, sugar product(molasses or agave), and kelp. I started squeezing several of her buds lately and it's incredible how solid they are, not loose or airy by any means. I finally noticed a couple amber trichromes. So after this week we'll switch her to getting plain ph'd water to wash away any possible buildup. Happy Growing Everyone! GO TEAM QUEEN!

This was a my favorite FastBuds grow so far. Almost everything went smoothly, a successful "top", perfectly timed defoliation, and a nice mix of green and purple pheno. I knew they would stay relatively small with the 1 gallon pots but the green plant still managed to get nice and bulky. That's one of my favorite parts of grow diaries is being able to look at other people's grows and get an idea of size etc. I think the next time i do an autoflower I'd like to try some well planned LST and aim for a flatter canopy. Unfortunately I'm sick at the moment so my smell and taste aren't too good, but the most identifiable smell was like an earthy citrus. The Queen plant aka the green plant definitely has a stronger smell and it weighed in at 33 grams. The Lady Sparkle Bottom plant aka the purple one was much smaller, loose and airy and weighed in about 12 grams. I declare The Queen the winner of this 2nd round of the cannabis shenanigans showdown. As she was a champ at tolerating the "top", had an excellent defoliation, was the heaviest of the 2 plants, and had the strongest smelling stoney sticky buds. Congratulations Queen. 💚 Thanks for everyone who glanced at or supported this grow. ✌️